by D H Lawrence, adapted by Ben Power

Husbands & Sons

Husbands & Sons interweaves three of D H Lawrence’s greatest dramas, and plays them simultaneously. Describing the world he came from with fierce tenderness, Lawrence evokes a now-vanished world of manual labour and working class pride.

It’s risky work, handlin’ men, my lass. For when a woman builds ’er life on men, either ’usbands or sons, she builds on summat as sooner or later brings the ’ouse down crash on ’er head – yi, she does.

On the cracked border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire stands the village of Eastwood.

The women of the village, wives and mothers, struggle to hold their families and their own souls together in the shadow of the great Brinsley pit.

Anne-Marie Duff returned to the National to play Lizzie Holroyd.

The Dorfman is a flexible theatre on three levels. Husbands & Sons was staged in the round, with the audience seated on all four sides of the stage.

Seats in The Pit - Everyone seated in the Pit swapped seats to the opposite side of the stage during the interval. Tickets showed the number and location of seats for Act 1 and Act 2.